An American family flying with United Airlines from Houston to Portland were forced off the plane after an emergency landing because the pilot wasn’t “comfortable” with an autistic child on board. The shocked family is filing a lawsuit.

The emergency stop was made in Salt Lake City, KOIN 6 News
reported citing Donna Beegle, who was traveling with her autistic
15-year-old daughter Juliette Forbes.

The incident unfolded after Donna realized that her daughter had
not eaten dinner yet. “She started getting a little upset and
I started thinking, ‘You know what? She didn’t eat her
dinner,” the mother said. “I know her, when she gets
over hungry or over thirsty, she really struggles because she
can’t tell us and she gets really frustrated.”

Being “extremely picky,” Juliette needed a hot dinner,
leading Beegle to ask if she could purchase one from first-class.

At first she was refused. Even after explaining that her daughter
had autism, the flight attendant said that an exception could not
be made.

Beegle then went on to clarify that if her daughter did not get a
hot meal, she would reach a “meltdown point” and could
potentially scratch someone. Shortly after this, Juliette was
brought a first-class meal.

What followed afterwards was a bizarre sequence of events, where
the pilot made an announcement stating that the plane would be
making an emergency landing because of a passenger “in the
back of the plane who has behavior issues.”

“I get the ignorance. But it has to change,” she said, adding
that her family will be filing a lawsuit. “It’s not about the
money, it’s about the training” standards airlines fail to
meet, she said.

A United Airlines spokeswoman Jennifer Dohm said that the airline
had tried to accommodate the Beegle family, but in the end the
decision to land had been made with the safety of the other
passengers in mind.

“After working to accommodate Dr. Beegle and her daughter
during the flight, the crew made the best decision for the safety
and comfort of all of our customers and elected to divert to Salt
Lake City after the situation became disruptive. We rebooked the
customers on a different carrier and the flight continued to
Portland,” KOIN quoted Dohm as saying.

The family then traveled on from Salt Lake City to Portland on a
Delta flight.